Archive for March 2019

Markets in 2018 turned out to be a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, but ultimately finished on a very sour note after a horrible 4th quarter. We began 2018 with optimism, having just come off a tremendous year in 2017 which saw 20%+ equity returns. Many investors were hoping the Tax Cut & Jobs Act of 2017 would continue the stock market rally for another year. January of 2018 appeared to do just that as the S&P 500 gained almost 6% for the month. The rise was short lived, however, and the market declined just under 12% over the next two months before bottoming near the end of March. From there, the stock market was either flat or up for the next six months and the S&P 500 ended September 30 with a year to date gain of 10%. Read more